Usk Fish Eating Bird Count

Over the next few months, the Foundation will be investigating the causes behind the recent decline in juvenile salmon numbers in the Usk.

One aspect could be the population of piscivorous (fish-eating) birds, or FEBs for short. We are organising a survey on Sunday 10th March 2019, between 9.30 and 10.30am to help establish how many birds there are on the Usk. We will then repeat the survey later in the year. All results will be made available here once we've compiled them.

How the count works:

We're asking for fishery owners (or others to on their behalf) to walk along their fishery, starting at 9.30am onwards and record all sightings of FEBs. The 4 main birds we are looking at are Cormorants, Goosanders, Red-Breasted Mergansers and Grey Herons. We are also interested in their activity - if they are feeding at a particular location, or flying to/from, or even just floating on the river. It's all important information that can be used to build a picture of the population on the Usk.

The survey should not last for more than one hour, even if you have not completed the whole length of your fishery in that time.

Once you have completed the survey, please send the results to us here at WUF, to Chris Gurney via email. We will then collate them all and analyse the results - all of which will be published on the website.